Oh, yeah. You’re a closet Seagulls fan. Admit it and come over to the dark side. We have cookies. This video was in heavy rotation in 1982 and scored the band their first top ten hit. (Despite their perception as a one hit wonder, they did have 2 other singles crack the top 10.) The video is a perfect time capsule of the New Wave genre (both the hair and the heavy use of synthesisers.)  We give it 5 guitars, cause we’re weird like that.

WATN? The band last toured in 2005.

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This video gets 2 guitars if for no other reason than it prevented Michael Jackson from having back to back number 1 singles. For one week in between Billie Jean and Beat It, Come On Eileen held the number 1 spot in America. The band mixes British pop, Celtic fiddle, and the worst fitting overalls to ever grace MTV. They all look like their waiting for a 100 year flood.  American singer Johnny Ray makes an appearance at the beginning of the video, but we here at Pound note think it could have been left out.

WATN? They released an album in 2007 that was mostly a rehashing of their first 2 albums.

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On November 22, 1997, Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in a Sydney hotel room. Today we observe a moment of “reviewer silence” in honor of the former lead singer of INXS.  No ratings today. Just a good video.

This is probably my favorite INXS song, but it’s a lousy video. About 2 minutes into the video, I can’t tell who seems more intoxicated -the cameraman or Michael Hutchence. The band would go on to make a lot of great videos in the 80’s. This wasn’t one of them. Great song, though. So give it a look.

Trivia: The drummer is wearing hot pink socks. Why? The keyboard is suspended from a wire so it’s being played above the head of Andrew Farriss. Again, why?

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You probably couldn’t watch MTV for more than an hour or so in 1984 and not see this video. It broke new ground as one of the first videos to heavily use computerized effects.  The video helped push the song to #7 in the U.S. It broke ground again by winning the very first MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.

WATN? Benjamin Orr died in 2000, ending any hopes of a reunion tour. However, several members reformed with Todd Rundgren under the name The New Cars.

Trivia: Despite a string of hit videos, it was the first and last VMA the Cars won.

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Ground Breaking Video

It was the first, but it certainly wasn’t the best. Midnight, August 1st 1981, MTV launched and this was the first video they aired.  Ironically, video didn’t kill the radio star, rather turning the artists who grasped the power of MTV into mega radio stars.  This one gets in on a technicality, though. It was originally recorded and released in 1979. It hit #1 in the U.K., but the band didn’t have enough material for a full album. It was included in the 1980 release, The Age of Plastic.

As for the video, it’s the classic low budget fair that dominated the early videos. I have to say the back up singers creeped me out. They look like the kids from Village of the Damned.

WATN? Who cares. People were asking that about 6 months after MTV launched.

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Welcome to the birth of our new website: WriteItOnAPoundNote.com.  This site is dedicated to 80’s music and the videos that have since disappeared from MTV’s and VH1’s programming.  We will try to post a new video daily with some commentary and “where are they now” type info.  If you love 80’s music, please suggest a video or tell your friends.

Our first video is dedicated to the man that inspired the name of the site. In 1982, Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoes hit #1 in the U.K. and #12 in the United States. It was from the Friend or Foe album, his first solo effort after the breakup of Adam and the Ants.

Long before Johnny Depp or the “Puffy Shirt” from Seinfeld, Adam Ant perfected the Pirate Chic look.  The video is a bit self indulgent, but we give it 3 guitars.

“If the words unspoken, get stuck in your throat. Send a treasure token, token. Write it on a pound note, pound note.”

Trivia: The song is featured in the movie Hot Fuzz. The butler in the video, Graham Stark, appeared in three different Pink Panther movies.

WATN? - Ant turned to acting in he late eighties/early nineties. A couple of forgettable albums later, he released Wonderful in 1995. It was his last studio album.  A live recording entitled Live at the Bloomsbury is scheduled for release later this year.

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